Wednesday, May 22, 2013

So the in-house model, Bailey, who belongs to my sister and brother in law, celebrated his first birthday on Sunday!! Even if it's a bit silly, we wanted to get together to celebrate our favorite little dog! First, let me tell you a little about Bailey. Bailey is not just any ol' dog. See, Bailey is super helpful with the shop. So he's not only the in-house model, but he also supervises my work from time to time:

Bailey loves to help lesson plan... See? He's letting me know which article is useful for class by drooling (or sometimes chewing) on the articles he likes.

He also watches me like a hawk to make sure I'm fair when grading:

Since Bailey is so helpful, it seemed only fair that we really make sure his birthday was extra special. I fell into a Pinterest loophole one evening a few months back and came across a dog cupcake recipe. I knew that I could modify the recipe to suit Bailey's tastes. It's his birthday after all so I figured he might as well get what he likes!! Plus, as I found with the dog treat recipes out there, a lot of the recipes have ingredients in them that I just don't think dogs need. I eliminated the honey, for example, because my version has bananas that will give them lots of flavor - plus dogs don't really need honey?! I mean, I guess it can't hurt, but I figured that if I can easily eliminated it, why not. (Pro-tip: I also halved the recipe since he's the only dog around. Extra cupcakes can be frozen and defrosted when needed).

Peanut Butter Banana Pup Cupcakes(makes 6 big cupcakes)Ingredients1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 cup plain yogurt (I used Greek)1/4 cup peanut butter 1 Tbs water
1/2 heaping cup ripe bananas (1 large banana or 2 small)3/4 cups whole wheat flour1/8 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 egg2 heaping Tbs grated cheeseOptional Frosting: 1/2 stick of low fat cream cheese, room temperature2-3 Tbs creamy peanut butter
Preheat oven at 375 degrees and grease muffin tins well with butter or a spray. Don't use paper liners.
Mix flour, oatmeal, baking powder and baking soda together in a large mixing bowl. Blend the yogurt, water, peanut butter, and egg together and then stir in the cheese and banana. Add the cheese mix to the flour mixture and stir until completely mixed. Have no fear if the batter looks super thick. It will still cook up gloriously. Spoon into the muffin tins, filling each cup about three quarters full. This will make big cupcakes. I would make the cupcakes smaller next time since Bailey is a smaller dog. If you want to do the same, fill each cup just under 1/2 way full.

Bake pup-cakes for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick poked in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

*If your dog is allergic to wheat, you can try using Brown Rice flour as a substitution. I haven't used it, but in my researching, I read it could be good substitution.
The original recipe had a frosting of sorts, but I left that off. If you really want your dog to have frosting, I would use half a stick of low fat cream cheese at room temperature and mix it with 2-3 Tbs of creamy peanut butter. Cream together and slather gloriously on the pup cupcakes. I will say, however, that Bailey enjoyed them without frosting so it's not necessary!!

Action shot: Bailey doesn't eat human food, so he was kind of unsure of what to do with the pup-cake. I had to tear it apart a little bit for him before he dug in.

Friday, May 17, 2013

I've just received a photo from this STUNNING bride Jen and her handsome groom CJ. You might remember this cute couple featured on the blog last summer. Jen purchased a hair piece last spring to wear to their courthouse wedding ceremony. Later that summer, Jen and I worked together to come up with the perfect veil for her ivory lace wedding dress!!

Friday, May 10, 2013

There are quite a few pets out there who are getting geared up for summer parties, because I've been making quite a few bowties this month. I've already heard back from one bride who bought a Navy Satin Fancy Pet Bowtie who's excited to share photos of her dachshund on her wedding day!!

Like the blush chiffon, I've had these two fabrics in my fabric stash for a while now and I think the colors are pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Hello there, did you miss me? The semesters for the two universities I teach for are quickly coming to an end and I've had a bit more time to work on items for the shop.

I've had this lovely blush Chiffon fabric since last summer, and I've wanted to make flowers from it as soon as I picked it up, but never could manage the time. (I purchased it in Ohio, to give you a hint about how long I've had it.) I finally had some time a few weeks ago and came up with two different styles of flowers.

The first is a magnolia/rose type flower similar in style to the ivory chiffon hair piece I have in my shop. I really love the soft pink color of the chiffon. It's a great subtle pop of color that's not too over the top.